And his arrival was very good for Denver and for the Broncos.

Lots has been written recently (including this article focusing on small businesses boosted by Tebow), but even Beyond Graduation saw him driving traffic to our site. Yes, we promoted his ongoing adventures via our Facebook page, but even with those efforts, we were surprised by how many Tebow fans (?) followed links back to the Beyond Graduation site.

What was it exactly? The last seconds drama? The fun of an underdog changing its spots?  The loud sharing of his beliefs? The fact that both of these got lots of attention and conversation as his season continued with heart-attack inducing last minute wins?

I personally find it a little odd to think that a high power has time to influence the outcome of football games. I guess I’m really hoping that there are bigger issues on his or her plate than NFL, but I’ve been wrong so many times before.

As football’s attention drifts away from the Bronco’s and Tebow, now watching games on the tv at home like the rest of us, all we can say is thank you. We – like many small businesses – enjoyed the boost we got from Tebow and, as fans, we enjoyed the drama and suspense of many of the games this season. Except when OUR team was the victim of those last second pieces of drama.

Thanks to you, December was our best month ever, and the start of 2012 sees several new partners working with us.

Today I’d like to highlight our partnership with Studica. Studica has been selling to educators and students for 25 years, focusing on software and technology. Recently they decided to expand to logo wear and began working with Beyond Graduation.

I’m delighted to announce that their store is officially open for business and features all of the great items you see at Beyond Graduation as well as customized Studica gear, for Studica fans and friends.

We are happy to create this sort of site for anyone, easily adding 100,000s of items to your store through a simple link to your new customized, ‘powered by’ Beyond Graduation store.

Check out Studica and let us know what you think … and if you have a need that we might be able to fill for you!

Both kids are back at school for quarter two of this year … one for the last year of her college education, the other for quarter #2 of his first year.

Wow. Students will be return over the next few weeks, leaving their recent return to home in their wake as they go back and readjust to school.

My son, who had a great first quarter and was antsy to return early on, was a little anxious about going back. All is ‘fantastic’ today, but that transition … a little stress building yet again.

As a parent, all you can do is respect their changes and give yourself a little space to transition yourself. From a chaos, noise and company, I’ve got dust bunnies, piles to clean and more silence than I can stand.  As a student, they go from full independence to being home as a child to back to ruling their destiny. A little nerve-wracking on all sides.

Be calm, be patient and remember the dust bunnies will become one with the vacuum cleaner with minimal effort.

Let them go (kids not dust bunnies) … but provide a warm send off. Let them stand independent, but sure they have a warm coat, sub zero-proof boots and a wool hat you know will survive the storm.

The next time will be easier for all. The first time is always an adventure.

Let’s close the books on 2011 and anticipate 2012 … both of those reactions seem to require lists.

First closing out 2011 … so many lists. Best movies. Worst movies. Worst dresser. Sporting highlight. Disaster lowlights. Who died? Who was born (and why should anyone but the parents really care??)

Then starting out 2012 … the lists become about resolutions. What am I going to try to accomplish during 2012? These typically involve health – weight, diet, exercise, – and can involve adding to your life (learn something new!) or subtracting (give up drinking/smoking/chocolate eclairs). They can be about finishing things (books, projects, etc.) or about starting things (new craft, new exercise program, etc.)

I’ve never been particularly good about making resolutions for the New Year. Partially, I’m sure, because I don’t want to look back at all those unchecked boxes when the next year rolls around!

I do a fairly good job with the practical and pragmatic and BORING. I guess I should resolve to go visit a dentist in early 2012 and can call it a day. But what I really need to resolve to do is find more fun. I have a routine that I enjoy and am exceedingly comfortable in but I really need to shake up that comfort and try to expand a bit.

With both kids off at school having new adventures daily, I’m somewhat compelled to be the unchanging anchor … but I know that I will get dusty! So … who wants to join me on new adventures in 2012? It’s a big world out there … let’s go explore.

All of us at Beyond Graduation wish you both a wonderful New Year and many fun adventures in the coming months!

So much prep goes into Christmas … trees, cards, gifts, wrapping and oh the food. New Year’s is also all about food, but more of an evening than of a season.

Can you tell we bake WAY too many cookies at Christmas time??

Both kids are spending their last week at home until March … or later if they can find a way to travel during their spring breaks. The time … while moment to moment leisurely … is racing by as all those last minute things need to get crammed into the remaining few days.

People to visit, shopping that needs to be done before the return to college (bathroom and laundry supplies, anyone??) I can feel the hours slipping away …

And there’s New Years looming. Do resolutions need to be made? If so … what??

I hope you spend this week relaxing and getting ready. I’m hoping 2012 will be a little kinder to us all than 2011 … lots of change is within our power … for that which is not within our power, I hope our elected officials can put partisanship behind them and more forward in a positive manner – we all need it.

More on resolutions later this week. Hopefully I can make up a few by then!

Wishing you, yours – and your favorite team – a wonderful holiday!

Sprung from the combination of two men’s experiences – Mike’s with selling software to college, Tom with selling licensed sports-related goods – Beyond Graduation has been an actual store front for a good part of the year and affiliate stores have been opening over the past two months.

There is our main store – www.BeyondGraduation. com – and that is open for business. We tweet, use Facebook, email and blog (no, really??) to promote the gazillions of items we have that show NCAA loyalty, and we throw pro sports into the mix too.

The affiliate stores are a second piece to the business. We will put a fresh ‘storefront’ on our site, so that  a college or university can afford their own merchandise (whether existing or created through our print on demand option) as well as offering ALL of the other merchandise in the site.

The school gets a percentage of the profits and no percentage of the work or expense of stocking their own store. No worries about merchandise, credit card fraud or staff … just a percentage of the profits.

We don’t see ourselves as competition for on campus bookstores, but do see that we could be a valuable offering for those who can’t easily get to the on campus store. Alumni, parents and friends don’t tend to be an easy hop, skip and jump from the often costly logowear that is available to students but priced out of most students’ budgets.

We will work with the school to promote the store in various ways … and the choice to acknowledge that purchases support the school can be known to purchasers or tacit.

And not only schools can benefit from these stores. Business that sell to students and sports fans could benefit from their own stores, and might have fun having their own brand of logo’d merchandise available for sale.

If you are interested in learning more, just let me know. We’ll be in touch and before you know it – you’ll have an online store, open for business.

The editorial discusses the costs – both personal and societal – of dropping out of high school.While the reasons for dropping out are myriad, the consequences are pretty standard. According to the Chicago Tribune “dropouts collect about $71,000 more in benefits such as food stamps than they pay in taxes over a lifetime. By comparison, high school graduates make a positive net contribution of $236,000. And college graduates chip in even more: $885,000.”

Wow.

From negative $71k to positive $236k … just with finishing high school. Wow.

There’s lots more numbers and I recommend you check them out but beyond that particular contribution/drain statistic, I was most taken with one teacher who mentioned that while students don’t drop out until high school, the school loses them in third grade.

The article doesn’t go into it, but third grade is pretty much the last time that reading is taught in a regular classroom. Kids who haven’t yet cracked the code on reading by the time they reach fourth grade are pretty much out of luck, unless they wind up in a special program somewhere.

It would be a long road to go if you couldn’t quite read at the end of third grade, as expectations will get higher and abilities remain the same or get lower.

I don’t know that all drop outs have issues with literacy – that is another area with scary, large numbers that tie out to loss all around – but it certainly seems to be one of the issues.

We can’t afford – truly and literally  - afford – for students to drop out, whether we are talking mentally dropping out in third grade or physically dropping out in high school. Let’s keep kids in school and give them their best chance for success. And let’s work together to ensure that what they get during their time at school is valuable, giving them the skills they need to succeed through high school and beyond.

I can see both sides and really dislike that. If I could just fully embrace one side of this issue, I’d be a better – or at least a more interesting – blogger.

I get that those who achieved a degree from Penn State are justifiably proud of themselves and their chosen alma mater. Your mom – you’ve got no choice. Your alma mater … at least that is partially your choice, once you survive the vetting process. And you do feel a connection/bond/affinity for that alma mater… you gave time and money, she conferred a degree and opened the door to a profession.

And I also understand the affection for Paterno. Geeze … he was around forever. He was successful. We like that when our alma mater can kick cousin Fred’s alma mater to the curb. Bragging rights and all.

But can we really brag? Did we knock Fred’s team to the curb? But can we – should we –  feel ashamed? Did we abuse young boys? Can we accept one of these premises and NOT the other??

I don’t know. I feel for grads and ungrads and those making the decision about Penn State this year, and I feel bad for the alumni whose shining past got more than a little tarnished this recently, but ….

As a lapsed Catholic, I understanding walking away – financially and emotionally – from an institution that safe guarded the victimizer over the victim. Churches have gone broken making restitution. The restitution money didn’t come from the abusers, but from the parish, who thought they were supporting their faith and in turn were providing a financial compensation for abuse. So wrong, whether church or state or school.

I wish I had the answer. I wish I could even narrow down the question.

Paterno and other Penn State admin made the decision that ‘the show must go on’ had a higher value than ‘children must be protected’. By cheering for a team, am I endorsing that? What’s my personal culpability? Low, I guess – especially if I don’t know about it. But what if I do know? And what if I become just one more person to walk away from what I know is wrong?

Is it right to penalize a football team and a school because of a ‘misdeed’? Maybe no, but if the misdeed was allowed to perpetuate because of the football team, do we get another answer?

I’m sorry to go digging on this again … but until we – as a society – find some answers, the rules of the game aren’t going to change. And that just isn’t acceptable.

Sports – sports – sports – and …. me!Is it a match made in heaven? Sure, I’m fine with presenting my opinions as representative of the whole female population as well as grateful for the mini-naps I take while the guys thrash back and forth on the latest sports results.

So, we’re in a team meeting today where it is announced that it was a BIG sports weekend. And that we really should blog about it. I thought this was a great idea… we’ve probably had enough chick lit on this site and it is time to return to our roots …. SPORTS.

So I say “I can’t write it – would one of you strong and burly gentlemen please create a piece about all this excitement you’ve been discussing?” as I batted by eyes furiously – a wasted effort, given it was a teleconference.

And they said yes.

And I GOT a link to someone else’s blog article that is so full of sports jargon it might as well be in Greek. And I got the suggestion that I try to take the high road like the author I’m to cite. It would help if I knew what the high road WAS.

Here I was, hoping to present you with a really meaty piece about the really amazing sports ‘stuff’ that happened this weekend and  …. sigh.

So … I guess ESPN and fans decide bowl match ups. And this year they didn’t select the Cowboys – many of whom are quoted as saying that it was their fault that they weren’t selected. And then they went on to say that the default for not being selected was a better option. Better game, better location, better opponents.

This is controversy in sports??

You can read more about it – the high road version –  right here ….

I’m hoping the next time I suggest the guys write for the blog, they remember this post. And actually write for the blog.